Author/Mechanic. Boulay's Garage: 603-358-6444

Evaluating Vehicles: 2000 Ford F-150 Fix it or not?

December 11th, 2012 Joe

Two years ago the gentleman that owned this 2000 Ford F-150 was faced with a decision. His truck had relatively low mileage on it, but it was being eaten away by rust. The truck needed ball joints exhaust manifolds front brakes, rear spring shackles. It also needed front brakes and some other maintenance items. So two years ago that bill cost him $2906.06 at that point in time he was made aware that it would not be a worthwhile investment because

the rust was quickly taking over the vehicle. He did however make this choice on his own and was not pushed into doing the work by the service advisor. Now here we are two years later and the customer brings the same truck in for state inspection, but now it is even rustier! Granted the truck only has 70k miles on it, but that are only because the truck basically sits in a dirt driveway most of the time. You can also bet that the vehicle was never undercoated or the road salt was not hosed off at the car wash as it should have been. Not to mention the truck is just plain old and tired. Now what do you think it needs this time to pass state inspection? Well basically a new or newer truck would do the trick, but that is not what the customer wants to do. The truck now has rust holes in the frame, and major rust issues throughout, it needs rear brakes and new gas tank etc. Now the truck needs an additional $2344.94 of work, and the saddest part of this is he is going to invest the money into it! Body shops do not guarantee rust work on any vehicle, as the rust will always return.

The whole underside of this truck looks like this!

In the case of this truck the rust will overcome the frame and it will likely fail. So basically over the past couple of years he will have invested $5251.00 into a truck that is beyond ready to be scrapped for metal. That money would have been a great down payment on a new truck don’t you think so? Please, please think before you invest a lot of money into and old vehicle especially if it is over 10 years old. Think about what might break next, and if you have the money or not to fix it.